PLA soldier shot in Terrorist attack

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
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I just saw this in another forum. I'm very anxious to see the PLA real response to this incident will be. I know I'll be watching.

My condolences to this soldiers family. He was only 18 years old.:(

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Soldier shot in southwestern Chinese city; govt says it's terrorism
By Alexa Olesen, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING - The Chinese government is treating the shooting death of an on-duty soldier in southwestern China as a terrorist attack.

Police have set up checkpoints and are calling for a counterterrorism response.

Southwestern China has been on high alert for weeks amid fears of a repeat of anti-government riots that rocked Tibetan areas of the country last March.

The city of Chongqing (CHUNG-CHING), where 18-year-old Han Junliang was killed Thursday night, is adjacent to Sichuan province where some of the worst violence occurred last year.

Han was standing guard at a military garrison in downtown Chongqing when he was shot by attackers who then made off with his machine-gun, the official Xinhua News Agency and other state media reported.

The brief reports said it was unclear how many attackers were involved and provided few additional details.

The Chongqing Daily cited police as saying the attack on the sentry demanded a counterterrorism response. Police were searching cars at checkpoints throughout the city, Xinhua said.

An official with the propaganda office of the Chongqing Communist party said police told him the attack was carried out by one assailant wearing a mask. But the official said he was unclear about why police suspected terrorism.

Li said he was told the assailant took one machine-gun and fled.

An employee at the Huarui Inn near the garrison said witnesses told him police tactical squads arrived at the scene 15 minutes after the attack.

"They haven't allowed vehicles to pass (through the area) since last night. There are more police around," said the man, who hung up when asked for his name.

Civilian attacks on the military and police are extremely rare in China and the local community and Internet were abuzz with rumours and secondhand accounts in the absence of information from authorities.

The shooting underscores an increase in violent crimes, often with guns, that has accompanied China's free-market reforms and a loosening of social controls.

Though the authoritarian government bans private gun ownership, it has acknowledged troubles dealing with armed criminal gangs that are worsening with growing joblessness.

Chongqing is a sprawling metropolis of more than 31 million people and is a magnet for migrants from the countryside looking for work.

The Chinese government is also grappling with separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang, the latter a Muslim area abutting Central Asia where violent attacks have sporadically erupted.

An assault last year in Xinjiang involving two men who rammed a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen, killing 16, was the deadliest and most brazen in years. It was blamed on minority Muslim separatists.
 

Semi-Lobster

Junior Member
I just saw this in another forum. I'm very anxious to see the PLA real response to this incident will be. I know I'll be watching.

My condolences to this soldiers family. He was only 18 years old.:(

The BBC also mentions that this incident could also be a case of organised crime as violent gun crime is on the rise according to them. Also they specify that the weapon stole was a submachine gun (not an actual machine gun obviously)

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bd popeye

The Last Jedi
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Thanks for posting those links. Humm?? Perhaps this was not a terrorist attack but the work of criminals?
 

The_Zergling

Junior Member
Just for clarification - what is the definition of "terrorism" that we're using? Seems that recently even attacks on military forces get this designation - is it a matter of *who* is doing the attacking, or who is hit and for what purposes?
 

Finn McCool

Captain
Registered Member
Just for clarification - what is the definition of "terrorism" that we're using? Seems that recently even attacks on military forces get this designation - is it a matter of *who* is doing the attacking, or who is hit and for what purposes?

I thought the exact same thing. I don't believe that attacks on on-duty uniformed military personnel constitute terrorism, no matter who is doing the attacking, whether it is seperatists in China or radical Islamists in Iraq. And if you attack civillians on purpose without any major extenuating circumstances then it is, regardless of what country does it.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
It use to be "terrorism" was an an attack on usually civilian targets to create terror in order to serve a political end. Until recently an attack on military targets was just guerilla warfare. But no one knows but to assume on this one of its nature. Killing the soldier and just taking his submachine gun doesn't sound anything more than an act of criminals.
 
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SampanViking

The Capitalist
Staff member
Super Moderator
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Having had very recently two soldiers and a Policeman gunned down in Northern Ireland, the UK is not mincing any words in describing the attacks as terrorist. I think China deserves the same right of catagorisation.
 

xywdx

Junior Member
According to Oxford, however unreliable, terrorism is "A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized."

As you can see, the definition is very vague, there really isn't an agreed upon definition for Terrorism, governments can pretty much spin it however they want.

An armed assault in China is actually a good reason for concern, primarily because of its rarity, especially against a military personnel, I can easily envision the average citizens being frightened at the news of a dead soldier and a stolen sub machine gun.

I also gathered from other sources that the soldier was on low alert duty, his weapon does not contain ammo, so the person who stole the gun is probably an amateur. I hope it's not just someone who has played too much GTA games, maybe all that accessibility granted by piracy is coming back to bite them.
 

The_Zergling

Junior Member
According to Oxford, however unreliable, terrorism is "A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized."

As you can see, the definition is very vague, there really isn't an agreed upon definition for Terrorism, governments can pretty much spin it however they want.

Exactly - this is what I'm worried about. The word "terrorism" is used for a specific purpose describing a certain behavior, and it doesn't do anyone any good to distort it, unless you're trying to mislead voters/citizens into doing something that they wouldn't have otherwise. To be sure it's regrettable and China will do what it can in retaliation/response, but to allow each government to say, "Well, attacks on our military are deemed terrorism" is simply too broad, and easily subject to abuse (as we have already seen).
 

Finn McCool

Captain
Registered Member
I agree with you Zergling, it's like when American or Israeli soldiers are captured in the Middle East the Western media says they have been "kidnapped". Now the Iraqi insurgents and Taliban and Hezbollah etc. are not known for their good treatment of prisoners, but still, capturing an armed uniformed soldier on the field of battle can hardly be called "kidnapping". The deliberate misuse of terms like terrorism and kidnapping is really just very subtle propaganda and it annoys me greatly.
 
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